At present, lighting systems in various configurations are developed and designed for many purposes, e.g. for general illumination, street illumination, advertisement, emergency lighting and city decoration.
The use of data analytics and intelligent interpretation of data collected from such lighting systems, may become a key-differentiating factor in the lighting systems market.
For example, lighting systems may collect information about the presence of individuals, ambient light, dimming levels, power consumption, user interactions, user preferences, demand response, device status, diagnostics, alerts and many other types of information.
Data analytics can be used to maintain the lighting system in a more efficient manner, by for example predicting end-of-life occurrences in the lighting system and thereby assuring citizens that down-time occurrences in the system will be less frequent. An accurate prediction of the life time of the lighting system offers preventive maintenance services which can significantly reduce maintenance costs and improve safety of the system.
US Patent application US 2014/0074434 A1 with title “Method and apparatus for end-of-life estimation of solid state lighting fixtures” describes an apparatus for estimating end-of-life for solid-state lighting.
In the known apparatus, actual operating parameters, such as the time of usage of a solid-state lighting fixture, the temperature of the solid-state lighting fixture and a current supplied to the lighting fixture over time are compared with estimated life time prediction data stored in a look-up table, such that a prediction of the lifetime status of the lighting fixtures may be obtained.
As a consequence, in US 2014/0074434 A1, detailed monitoring of the solid-state lighting fixtures is required. The known lighting system requires thus expensive local sensors measuring the time of usage, the temperature and the current of the solid-state lighting fixture in order to make end-of-life estimates. Further, since multiple parameters need to be monitored, a significant amount of data logging is required, increasing overall complexity and cost of the known system.
Another problem of the known lighting system is that the end-of-life estimates cannot be retrieved from the look-up table when e.g. a local sensor fails.
As a consequence, in the known lighting system, lifetimes of the local sensors must be guaranteed to be longer than the lifetimes of the solid-state lighting fixtures.